State Of Decay And Its Open World Apocalypse

Zombie games have been in constant supply during this console generation, but many of them focus on action. With the upcoming State of Decay for Xbox Live Arcade, developer Undead Labs is instead forcing the player to focus more on survival and building a community of survivors.

In the game's open world, several areas can be set up as bases for your community. These can eventually be upgraded and modified with a variety of upgrades, including weapon repair stations, med stations with cots for the injured, and gardens to grow your own food. Vehicle repair stations will be critical, as there is a finite number of cars in the game world that can become permanently totalled.

Dynamic missions will pop up from time to time, and you'll have to take out infestations if you don't want them to spread to other areas. The game utilizes real world time, so the infection will definitely spread if you go several days without playing.

Instead of just running in and taking out hordes of zombies with your fists and weapons, you can utilize stealth and distractions. Let's say you need to get in a hardware store to get nails for your base, but a horde of zombies is hanging out near the front. You can leave a police car's siren on or throw some firecrackers to lure them towards the noise, and then sneak by.

Many missions will be dynamic, but there is a narrative thread tying everything together and story characters that can't die. It's big in scope for a downloadable title, featuring a game world as big as Grand Theft Auto III. No release date is set right now, but Undead Labs seems confident that it will release before or during this year's Summer of Arcade.